Plasmids from Wine-Related Lactic Acid Bacteria

This chapter presents a review of the most important plasmids isolated to date from wine-related lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The chapter is organised in four main parts dealing, respectively, with plasmids from four genera of LAB found on grapes and in must and wine (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Oenococcus and Pediococcus). Some of these genera, notably Lactobacillus, include a large number of plasmid-carrying strains that have been isolated from non-wine-related sources, but this chapter focuses on plasmids of strains isolated from wine-related sources. When information on the genetics (nucleotide sequence, replication mechanism, use as cloning vectors and/or transformation procedures) of these plasmids, or their effects on phenotype, has been reported in the literature, this information is summarised here. Finally, in this chapter it is concluded that future work on wine-related-LAB plasmids will require new vectors and transformation systems, notably for Oenococcus oeni.